STOCK MARKET UPDATE: 15.03.2013

STOCKS

Karachi Stocks Down  19.75 Points:
KARACHI, Mar 14: At the close of trading, the KSE-100 index was at 17,740.69, down-19.75 points.

(Today Market is 84.52 Down@ 10.33 am)

March 14, 2013

 5 TOP GAINERS  &  LOOSERS:

Sapphire Textile	Rs 10.96	Nestle Pak	Rs (250.00)
Sapphire Fiber	Rs 8.42	Dreamworld	Rs (17.18)
Sunrays Textile	Rs 8.00	Fazal Textile	Rs (14.15
Philip Morris	Rs 6.62	Shezan Int’l	Rs (12.91)
National Foods	Rs 6.00	Sanofi Aventis	Rs (10.00)

Stocks lose 19 points in quiet trading

KARACHI, March 14: The Karachi Stock Exchange on Thursday experienced one of the quietest sessions in a long time as investors stayed on the sidelines, waiting for the dust to settle on some of the important fronts.
The market dullness could be judged by the heavy plunge of 59 per cent in aggregate traded value of shares to Rs3.349 billion on Thursday, from Rs8.144 billion the day earlier.On Thursday, the KSE-100 index slipped by 19.75 points to close at 17,740.69 points.
“It is spooky,” said an equity trader. He believed that volatility was much more desirable, compared to the deafening silence in the market, for the latter was usually seen to be bode ill for the market.
Most participants said that the investors, both institutional and individual waited for the caretaker government set up, ahead of the elections, so as to gauge if the new-comers were investment-friendly.
The big driver of the market last week Engro also traded within a short price range as the company told the KSE that it had sought clarification over the ECC decision on gas supply to its plant, taken at the last meeting. Except for Engro Corporation, almost all other scrips on the 10-top traded list were low-valued, second or third tier scrips.
Equity Sales manager at Topline Securities stated that the lack of triggers kept investors away from local bourse. Volumes sharply dropped to two-month low.
Hasnain Asghar Ali at Escorts Capital commented that after staying dicey for back to back sessions wherein the benchmark moved in extreme directions, the activity at the local equity market came to a virtual halt. Absence of clarity on external front and political change kept the participants on sidelines.
Foreign investors who had bought shares worth a heavy $3.94 million on Wednesday also slowed down their investment in equities to $0.30 million on Thursday, following the lead of local investors.
The market capitalisation-based KSE-30 index lost 37.01 points to end at 14,287.91 points. In terms of daily volume, number of shares traded plunged by 29 per cent to 128 million shares on Thursday, from 180 million shares the previous day. Market capitalisation declined by Rs21 billion to Rs4.379 trillion, from Rs4.400 trillion.
Among the 323 stocks that came up for trading on Thursday, gainers at 166 were ahead of the 132 losers while 25 scrips closed unchanged.
The two biggest gainers for the day were Sapphire Textile, up by Rs10.96 to Rs230.21, followed by Sapphire Fibre higher by Rs8.42 to Rs180.25.
In the red zone, Nestle Pakistan lost Rs250 to Rs5,000 and Dreamworld was down by Rs17.18 to Rs362.61.
Telecard Limited posted the highest turnover of 12.5m shares, up by 37 paisa to Rs6.33. Maple Leaf Cement was higher by 37 paisa to Rs17.31 on 11.2m shares, Dewan Motors gained 64 paisa to Rs2.92 on 9m shares, TRG Pakistan added 80 paisa to Rs6.93 on 9m shares, Engro Corporation finished lower by Rs1.39 to Rs123.36 on 8m shares, PIAC rose by 38 paisa to Rs6.81 on 7m shares; Dewan Salman was up by 29 paisa to Rs2.27 on 7m shares, Jah Sidd Co gained 29 paisa to Rs13.97 on 6m shares, PTC, the telecom giant, lost 24 paisa to Rs20.21 on 6m shares and Lafarge Pakistan, the cement stock, slipped by 4 paisa to Rs6.16 on 3m shares.

MOHAMMED SALEEM MANSOORI